U.S. lawmakers move to ban BPA from food, beverage containers

Leaders from the House of Representatives and the Senate on Friday announced legislation to establish a federal ban on bisphenol A in all food and beverage containers.

The bills, which Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plan to introduce, greatly expand efforts to limit use of the chemical in products for babies and children.

The move comes a day after Sunoco, the gas and chemical company, sent word to investors that it was now refusing to sell bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, to companies for use in food and water containers for children younger than 3. Sunoco told investors it could not be certain of the compound's safety.

Last week, six baby bottle manufacturers, including Playtex and Gerber, announced that they would stop using BPA.

The bills would immediately outlaw the sale of all food and drink containers made with BPA. Anything on store shelves would have to be removed. It would suspend the manufacture of food packaged in containers that contain the chemical, but items already made could be sold.

Scientists and environmentalists praised the move as an acknowledgment of the chemical's danger, but some worried that more needs to be done to study how humans are exposed to the chemical.

"It may represent just the tip of a much larger iceberg," said Pat Hunt, the professor from Washington State University whose work led to the discovery of the effects of BPA on animals more than 10 years ago.

"Recent work suggests that contaminated food and beverages alone aren't sufficient to account for the levels reported in human blood. Thus, it's clear that we need to know a lot more about how we are exposed to this chemical."

BPA is used in thousands of household products, including baby bottles, eyeglasses and CDs. It has been detected in nearly all Americans tested. Developed as an estrogen replacement, it is widely used to line metal cans.

Studies have linked BPA to breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease and hyperactivity. A study released last fall found that it interferes with chemotherapy in breast cancer patients.

"There is a deep sense of public outrage around BPA," said Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy at the Breast Cancer Fund.

She called on lawmakers to vote for the ban.

"This is a chemical so powerful it can cross the placenta and negatively affect the developing fetus," she said. "Retailers are getting the message; manufacturers are moving toward safer production. Scientists across the board are saying we have enough evidence of harm to act."

The bills allow manufacturers to get waivers for one year from the Food and Drug Administration if they can show there is no technology available to make a particular food or beverage container without the use of BPA.

Measures introduced last year died before going to a vote.

The American Chemistry Council, the trade group that represents chemical makers, continues to maintain that the chemical is safe. Kathryn Murray St. John, director of public affairs for the ACC, said Friday that her organization did not believe the bill "can be justified based on current science."

Sandra Schubert, director of government affairs for Environmental Working Group, a health watchdog group that has been pushing for the ban, said she was sensing much more widespread support for a ban, with baby bottle manufacturers and even a BPA maker expressing concern about safety.

She said reports in the Journal Sentinel about industry efforts to downplay the chemical's dangers opened lawmakers' eyes to the conflicts of interest at play in trying to keep BPA from regulation.

"The evidence has built up, and there's some real momentum now," she said.

The FDA ruled last summer that BPA is safe for use, despite advice from its scientific advisory board that the agency needed to consider more than two studies, both of which were paid for by the chemical industry.

The Journal Sentinel reported that entire sections of the FDA opinion were written by chemical makers and those with a financial stake in BPA.

Schubert predicted the bills would be attached to larger bills aimed at overhauling the FDA. "I think we'll see a vote on this sometime this year," she said.

Tests of 10 common packaged food products conducted for the Journal Sentinel last year found that toxic levels of BPA leached from every one when heated as instructed in a microwave or an oven - even those marked as "microwave safe."

The amounts detected were at levels that scientists have found cause neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. The problems include genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands.

The changes to the mammary glands were identical to those observed in women at higher risk for breast cancer.

The Journal Sentinel reviewed 258 scientific studies of BPA and found that an overwhelming majority of the studies show the chemical is harmful - causing breast cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes, hyperactivity, obesity, low sperm counts, miscarriage and a host of other reproductive failures in laboratory animals.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) expressed support for the bill, saying, "The growing concern over this chemical means that we should err on the side of caution and keep this substance far away from our children."

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called concerns about BPA justified, but he said he would need to study potential unintended consequences on small businesses and manufacturers in southern Wisconsin before deciding whether to support a ban.

"As a father of three, I share the concerns many parents have with the safety of food and beverage containers," he said.

Fred vom Saal, a University of Missouri scientist who is considered the leading expert on the chemical, said the action in Congress underscored the FDA's failure to do its job.

"I think the public should be grateful that people in Congress are paying attention," he said. "It suggests that serious reform of the FDA is called for. Clearly, they are ignoring the science."

BPA investigation To read the Journal Sentinel's ongoing investigation "Chemical Fallout," go to www jsonline.com/chemicalfallout. JSOnAir Meg Kissinger on BPA To see Meg Kissinger talk about the national attention the Journal Sentinel is getting for its research into bisphenol A, go to jsonline.com/jsonair.